Sex, Violence and the American Nightmare

Not too long ago, I was asked to participate in a public debate about the persistent flow of “white collar sexual predators” (many of them serial) whose stories are aired out these days, one per day. There are so many cases that you can expect yet another reality show to premiere soon; it will be called “Tales from the Creeps”. The person who invited me to the debate had heard me say that if chemical castration was an option for the incorrigible sexual predator nobody had ever heard of, I did not understand why it should not be applied to a famous creep like, say, Harvey Weinstein. She was so enthusiastic with my argument that I had to decline the invitation to participate in the debate: we lawyers sometimes feel compelled to take ourselves seriously…

Besides, even if I welcome and support the activism (and the civics) behind movements like #MeToo, I am afraid that with an individual who proclaims himself a proud serial sexual predator sitting in our Oval Office (a few episodes of the new reality show may be shot there), our “rule of law” on this matter will never be as harsh as it should be.

But this is not to say we Americans abhor castration; on the contrary. Depending on the circumstances and according to what we may occasionally see as our best interests, some of us are even willing to castrate ourselves. Witness, if not, those who self-celebrate themselves as part of a “Moral Majority” in charge of guarding our most sacred values aligning behind those who are an obvious example of what those values are not, even if they have to cut off their sacred values in the process.

The biggest problem we Americans face today is that we have a political system that tells us we are subject to the rule of law, when reality shows we are enslaved by “the rule of money”, which ultimately dictates what our laws are and will be. Thus we face calamities like the recent mass killing at the Parkland high school, in South Florida, with a sense of impotence that our people, throughout our history as a nation, has seldom felt (though, sadly, we are beginning to get used to).

The fact the character in the Oval Office is also on record claiming that he could shoot a fellow New Yorker in the middle of 5th Avenue without losing a single vote foreshadows little action when it comes to gun control, just as when it comes to controlling sexually hyperactive creeps.

Our political system has been castrated by money, and it is incapable of responding to the monthly mass killing, simply because our legislators (at all levels) are eunuchs –as proud of being eunuchs as our tremendous president is of his sexual exploits (he probably calls them “munichs”, like the character played by Ryan Gosling in the movie “Nice Guys” does)- and for a significant number of Americans this state of affairs seems pretty normal.

Without significant changes to our political system our laws will remain what they are: incapable of preventing and properly sanctioning white collar sexual predators and irresponsibly aimed at permitting the sale of as many guns as the gun industry and lobby sees fit to manufacture. If so, virtually no public space in our country will ever be safe again from turning into a shooting gallery at the drop of a hat, like Parkland High School or the Las Vegas music concert did.

It is humiliating to see a US senator, like mine, impotently rubbing his hands, lamenting how hard it is to prevent the mass killing du jour, simply because he does not have the balls to oppose the dictates of those who give him money to stand by their argument that every American citizen has an inalienable right to have an assault weapon (several, if possible) at home.

Sending “thoughts and prayers” every time the result of his inaction and lack of courage becomes evident sounds ever more hypocritical, in his case as well as in the case of many of those we ironically call “our representatives”.

What prevents us from passing laws that state that assault weapons are weapons of war, to be used at war, and that their unrestricted sale is a danger to society, including the dunces –and their families- who cannot live without an AR-15 of their own?

What stops us from dissolving the NRA if its sole purpose is to monetarily castrate our lawmakers, either by putting money in their pockets to pay for their political campaigns, or by extorting them, Mafia style, threatening to run a well financed opponent against them in the next election if they do not do the NRA’s bidding?

The answer is very simple, and it has nothing to do with common sense: money, money, and money.

In South Florida we spend plenty of time talking about the corruption, the lack of democracy, the insecurity in those places abroad we used to call home. But what can be more terrifying than living constantly under the threat of an indiscriminate shower of bullets, any place and any time?

If we do not get rid of our money ruled political system that castrates our “public servants” turning them into eunuchs soon enough, America, far from being “great again”, may fall prey to other nations, some of which have the instincts of a sexual predator, which will grab us by the genitals following the example of our “leaders”, our lobbyists and our entertainers.

This may be happening already, in fact: Vlad Putin’s pecs could well seem irresistible to those fool enough to share his casting couch.

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José Manuel Palli is a Cuban born lawyer, originally trained as such in Argentina and a member of the Florida Bar since 1985. He is president of World Wide Title and is passionate about political & social issues in the Cuban & Argentinian landscape.